Continuing a local legacy New, expanded Eat’n Park opening Wednesday in McMurray
The staff at the new Eat’n Park includes, front row from left, manager Nathan Romano, manager Cassandra Schaltenbrand and cook Marlene Simonson, and back row, district manager John Rusnock, general manager Betty Gordon, assistant manager Peter Wilkinson, and prep cook Lori Cumer.
The new Eat’n Park restaurant in McMurray is 7,400 square feet and has 237 seats for diners. The restaurant also features a salad bar (upper left of the photo) that is the number- one ordered menu item at the restaurant.
Lisa Moss, a Eat’n Park greeter, arranges mugs on a display shelf for purchase before the opening of the new restaurant in McMurray. The store opens Wednesday at 6 a.m.
One of the new features at the Eat’n Park is a drive-through windows for phone or web orders for takeout.
McMURRAY – Free Smiley Cookies for all in McMurray!
The new Eat’n Park will open at 6 a.m. Wednesday with that sweet gift – and more – for guests. It will have additional amenities, twice the space and nearly three times the employees than its predecessor had a quarter-mile to the south.
“This has been overdue in Peters Township,” said Kevin O’Connell, senior vice president of marketing for Eat’n Park Hospitality Group, the Homestead-based parent of the restaurant chain.
“The other location got pretty tired. We’re so excited.”
Eat’n Park Hospitality shuttered that other location, at 3528 Washington Road, the afternoon of Feb. 21 after 56 years of operation. Plans call for the building to be razed and a Dunkin’ Donuts restaurant to be erected there.
Employees at that Eat’n Park, 39 of them, are moving to the state-of-the art facility at 3380 Washington Road, at the intersection with Hidden Valley Road. And while they comprised virtually the entire staff at the established site, they will represent 36 percent of the new one. The company hired an additional 70 to form a 109-member team.
“This is the biggest staff I’ve started with,” said Betty Gordon, who, as site general manager, will run the place. “It’s very exciting, a great opportunity.”
It’s also closer to home. Gordon lives in Washington and her previous management gig was at the Eat’n Park in St. Clairsville, Ohio. Her résumé also includes a management stint at the now-departed Peters location.
Her new workplace will have 7,400 square feet, 237 seats and 90 parking spaces, and will be the centerpiece of Peters Township Marketplace, a $4 million, single-building center that, when completed, will have 12,000 square feet of work space.
There will be two other businesses, but only one tenant has committed. A Northwest Savings Bank branch is being built and may open in late April or early May. The site had been unoccupied for at least three years.
Not surprisingly, this Eat’n Park follows the physical model that corporate developed in recent years for its new facilities and those in need of an upgrade. It is the third site south of Pittsburgh to get this design, following Banksville Road, Pittsburgh, and Route 88, Bethel Park.
Spiffy modern signage, including Smiley, is at the front of the building, facing Washington Road. The entrance, a few feet away, opens to a spacious dining area that includes a private room for parties and groups. There is ample lighting, thanks to a preponderance of windows and installation of LED bulbs throughout.
A flat-screen TV entertains guests at the counter, near the register. The salad bar to the right is lengthy, with many offerings – an Eat’n Park standard. There is a reason for that.
“It’s the most popular item inside the restaurant,” said company spokeswoman Becky McArdle.
Flexible seating is common here, unlike at some Eat’n Park locations that feature mostly booths bolted into the floor. The ability to push tables together to accommodate large groups is a benefit to employees and customers alike.
“We can reconfigure the restaurant so that no matter the size of the party, we can seat you faster than before,” O’Connell said.
Diners on the move have the option of a pickup window at the building’s rear. Call ahead, place an order, pick it up. It is an initiative the company adopted in 2008. On Wednesday, officially, Peters will be the 44th of an estimated 75 tri-state locations to have this feature.
“It’s kind of a throwback to our carhop days,” O’Connell said, referring to the chain’s early years when servers walked out to cars, took meal orders and returned with food and drink for in-car dining.
The most popular item for pickup? A quart of soup. The second most requested pickup item is the Superburger.
Eat’n Park does have a foothold in the Peters community, having served Superburgers, milkshakes, soups and sodas for nearly 56 years. The old place fulfilled a corporate pledge to be community oriented, and the new one is following that lead. Local photos adorn the interior walls, including shots from the Peters Township and Canon-McMillan football stadiums. More are sure to come.
“We try to localize every restaurant because we want to be part of the communities,” McArdle said.
Unlike some others in the chain, the new Eat’n Park will not be open round-the-clock. But it will be close. The hours: Monday through Thursday, 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 6 a.m. to midnight; Sunday, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Eat’n Park has been around since June 5, 1949, when it launched on Saw Mill Run Boulevard in Pittsburgh’s Overbrook section. That dining spot no longer exists, and sometime this year, neither will the original one in Peters.
Now its successor will strive to live up to the corporate slogan: Place for Smiles.